Cytotrait is developing crop engineering technology for precise gene editing in plant organelles to enable crops with improved traits and resilience for more sustainable agriculture.
Cytotrait, a spinout from The University of Manchester focused on developing new traits for food and agricultural applications, has closed a £3 million seed funding round. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, and the Northern Universities Ventures Fund, managed by Parkwalk in collaboration with Northern Gritstone.
Cytotrait develops technologies aimed at improving crop traits. Its proprietary platform, MOSS (Mutant Organelle Selection System), enables the introduction of genes and gene edits into plant organelles, including chloroplasts and mitochondria. The approach allows researchers to rapidly achieve homoplasmy, meaning the desired genetic change is present across all organelles within a cell or plant.
The technology enables gene edits or insertions in plant organelles, supporting the development of new crop traits while addressing technical challenges in plant engineering. It can be applied to both endogenous gene editing and the introduction of transgenes.
Cytotrait’s technology has potential applications in areas such as improving crop yield, enhancing resistance to pests and diseases, supporting hybrid crop development, and introducing new food-related traits. It may also contribute to agricultural approaches aimed at improving carbon capture.
Dr Junwei Ji, co-founder and executive director of Cytotrait, said the company developed MOSS to help address challenges related to food security and agricultural sustainability. He noted that the technology is designed to support the development of crops with new and enhanced traits while potentially streamlining regulatory pathways.
The company plans to use the new funding to expand research programmes focused on wheat, maize, potato, and canola in European and North American markets. These programmes will apply the MOSS platform to explore improvements in crop yield and resilience, the development of new food traits, and approaches that may support more sustainable agricultural practices, including improved carbon sequestration.